Amid the ongoing farmers’ protest, an image of NDTV journalist Ravish Kumar is being shared to claim that he is going to eat “biryani,” a dig at a video which showed Gazipur farmers’ eating Biryani at the protest spot.
However, the image could be traced back to November 2018 when Kumar was reporting from the ground about the Kisan Mukti March in Delhi.
CLAIM
The claim that aims to take a dig at the journalist reads: “चलो जल्दी बिरयानी उधर मिल रही है |”
(Translated: Let’s go fast, Biryani is being served there.)
Several social media users shared the image with the same claim on Facebook and Twitter.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
A reverse image search with relevant keywords led us to an article published on a website called ‘UP Khabar’ on 1 December 2018. The article carried the viral image.
Several social media users had shared the image on Twitter on 30 November 2018 as well. We also noticed the logo of All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) on a man’s shirt in the viral image.
We then searched on YouTube using keywords “NDTV Ravish Kumar AIKS 2018” and came across a video uploaded by NDTV channel on 29 November 2018. The bulletin showed a ground report of the Kisan Mukti March organised by the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) in Delhi.
The NDTV journalist can be seen wearing the same clothes in both the visuals.
The Quint, too, had reported then on the said Kisan March rally. Thousands of footsteps had thundered the national capital as farmers from across the country marched to Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi.
Farmers’ rights group had then demanded that the Indian Parliament call for a special session and pass two bills: the first bill related to one-time full loan waiver as a relief to debt-ridden farmers. The second bill a long term institutional measure to ensure farmers were not pushed to indebtedness again.
The Quint’s WebQoof team has debunked several misinformation in the past that is being shared to discredit the ongoing farmers’ protests.
Evidently, an old image of Ravish Kumar that could be traced back to 2018 has been revived in the light of ongoing farmers’ protests.
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